On 9 July, as part of the Karlovy Vary Industry Days, the Small Screen Forum hosted the panel “Crossing Borders: European Collaborations in Series Production”. The discussion was aimed at uncovering the potential benefits and risks of cross-country collaboration within the continent. The event was moderated by Alexander Michailidis.

Johnathan Young, co-founder of May One, a boutique production company, opened the discussion. “I don’t think I'm the right expert when it comes to co-productions from a financial point of view, but when the topic of this panel was presented to me, I got really excited about the opportunity to talk about creative collaboration because I think that the most interesting stories that I've come across are happening in Central Europe. However, it's not always so easy to get them onto the screen, because of budgetary situations.

“There is a big difference between a co-production where the ambition is to find common ground between different cultures and different countries, for creative reasons, and co-productions that are put together for financial reasons,” he explained.

Emmanuel Eckert, a commissioner and independent producer, agreed on the statements and offered his point of view on the topic: “It's mainly creative initiatives, co-financing, co-productions, and trying to get the best out of all countries, or servicing countries and producers. So, most of the time, when we talk about co-productions, which is a very good principle in itself, in reality, not all of them are completely real, since it is indeed very rare and difficult to find them.”

Moritz von der Groeben, CEO and producer at good friends Filmproduktions, talked about the situation in his home country, Germany, where, in his opinion, the main issue is not looking for money; instead, broadcasters are often driven by the fear of missing out on unique projects that may not be available later, as well as the prestige of being part of internationally recognised productions. “Producers must understand what motivates broadcasters and streamers when pitching content.”

The producer brought up the example of the Belgian series Undercover, initially co-produced by ZDF before it later landed on Netflix. Involved together with ZDF, von der Groeben was only a minority co-producer, and the creative lead was in the hands of a Belgian team (“It was the case of a small country looking for money from a bigger one”). ZDF's investment aligned with its interest in high-quality European content, as an example of the desire for prestige mentioned earlier. Ultimately, the project succeeded across markets, and Netflix eventually took over most of the production and the financing.

The participants then discussed who owns the decision-making power, especially when there’s a big gap in the financing. “If you have 80%, does that mean you win 80% of the arguments?” the moderator asked, mentioning a conversation he had had before the panel with Young. “I think when you're starting to get to the point where it becomes like scoring points, then the beauty of co-production, the creative potential, is beginning to be eroded. For me, the most exciting case is when you're putting together talent on an idea where no individual person could achieve the result that you're aiming for, because you're talking about bringing different perspectives together,” May One’s founder answered.

von der Groeben admitted having some hope regarding this matter: “For a long time now, as all markets have been producing so much themselves, the number of co-productions has kept going down. Nonetheless, I believe that we are at a shifting point because budgets are decreasing, there's less money in the market, and I'm optimistic that, progressively, more co-productions will come up with financial need, while being guided by strong creative principles.”

Finally, talking about the potential challenges of co-productions, the producer also mentioned that one of the main issues is the clash between different languages, but “this might be solved by AI in the near future, and it's going to be interesting to see”. Another potential obstacle mentioned was the clash between people’s egos – not just between those from different countries, but also those from the same one.